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Matthew 16:13-20 - Lectionary for Pentecost 12A

8/24/2017

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8/24/17
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the three-year lectionary.

Our Gospel reading from Matthew 16:13-20 confronts us with a Christian understanding of Jesus. Who is he? He is not, as many of us have heard in public media intended to mock him, a mostly fictitious person who was severely mentally disturbed, gathered a band of followers to feed into his power play, and then took off with one of them to live in a secret marriage incognito. No, what is Jesus like? Peter, speaking for the others also, recognizes Jesus as the Messiah. He is the one who comes to rescue Israel from sin and captivity. He is the Son of God.

This runs counter to our world’s expectations. While a secular culture would want to accept Jesus as, at best, some sort of a good teacher, maybe someone who could do some miracles, and certainly someone who taught peace and kindness, the Gospels recognize him as God the Son, the one who is the only hope for life in this age and in eternity.

Our Gospel passage also brings up some claims. We do well to consider their relative merits. If, in fact, Jesus is what our world would expect him to be, he is radically self-contradictory. We can’t count on the accounts which have come to us in Scripture being accurate, because we need to pick and choose among the claims. We have to treat the New Testament differently from any other document dating from its period. We have to assume that the portions which appear to be literal and historical narrative are to be interpreted as allegory. We have to assume that some of the allegorical passages are to be taken literally. We cannot be guided by our normal sense of reality, as we are in reading any other piece of literature. That is, if we want to accept Jesus as what our world expects him to be.

On the other hand, if we read the New Testament as a normal human would read it, we are given a very different Jesus. This is a Jesus who, though quite human, also is divine. He is the son of God and the son of Man. He lives as a man and dies as a man. He does miracles by the power of God. People are genuinely surprised at his miracles, because they know miracles don’t normally happen. He is put to death and rises from the dead, is seen by many people, and ascends to heaven. It was not in the best human interests of his followers to proclaim this. It brought their exile from any good society. It brought execution for many of them. Yet Jesus says here that the confession of Jesus as the Son of God, the Messiah, is the rock on which He will build his Church. This, also, is what we can see happening in history. It has been the message of Jesus and his redemption which has anchored and guided Western Civilization through generations. It is the Gospel which has motivated people to care for the poor and needy, to provide hospitals, to investigate our highly complex world, to form schools, to explore new lands and try to bring comfort to strangers.

Jesus, the Son of God, the Messiah, is the one who will build his Church. It’s a good thing he will do it. We’d just mess it up somehow. Let’s watch what He does.

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Romans 11:33-12:8 - Lectionary for Pentecost 12A

8/23/2017

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8/23/17
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the three-year lectionary.

It is very easy for us to fall into the habit of reading the Bible a chapter at a time. That’s well and good. It brings much more context than reading a verse here and a sentence there. Yet sometimes we find the chapter breaks are not entirely sense breaks. That is the case here in Romans. If we begin our reading at Romans 12:1 wemay fail to see that the text is built on the idea which came at the end of chapter 11. So we read 11:33-12:8.

The passage begins with a meditation on the wonders of God. Who has ever given God advice? Granted, most of us have. But he never needed it or wanted it. He simply endures it patiently. Who can understand the depths of God’s wisdom? Nobody can. All we have in this world comes from the God of all mercy. So then we read on into chapter 12.

Because of God’s mercy, as he has given us gifts, we put them to use. This is consistently for the good of the rest of the world. One Christian teacher I respect a good deal wrote an article about elections, saying that we should “vote for the other guy.” That isn’t the other candidate. It is the candidate who will help and serve our neighbor. If we are to love and serve our neighbor as ourselves, we should seek that other person’s good. This is exactly what these different gifts of the Holy Spirit mentioned in Romans 12:3-8 do. They serve our neighbors. They think of others. They speak for their benefit. They care for others. They build up the whole body of Christ, rather than just building us up individually.

How can we serve our neighbor? That’s a great question. The answers are as many and varied as our neighbors and their situations. But in what context do we serve our neighbor? We serve our neighbor in the light of God’s mercy, bringing mercy and grace to every person in every place. This is what Romans 12 calls being “sober minded.”  It brings good to our world.

If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.

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Isaiah 51:1-6 - Lectionary for Pentecost 12A

8/22/2017

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8/22/17
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the three-year lectionary.

Am I the only one who has ever felt insignificant? Sometimes a trip to the mountains, seeing something so very much biger than ourselves, will cause this. Maybe when we think about the ocean and how enormous and unexplorable it is can do it. Or sometimes our feelings of inadequacy come from less visible, less tactile things. We don’t understand how a relationship is going, why the boss is angry, why business is not thriving, or what difference we make.

God calls his people to look to where they came from. Yet that is not the same as looking at their parents or their culture. With all due respect, our parents are more or less as inadequate as we are. Our culture seems to major on minors, emphasizing all the failings in society, losing the strengths. Who do we look to? We look to distant examples. Abraham, Sarah, the God who leads his people through the sea and through the desert. We look to the example of God raising up deliverer after deliverer for his people in the Old Testament. We look at Jesus, the promised Messiah, who is called “God with us.” And as we do this we see a genuine hope for life. We find that although we will die just like everyone else, that death is not at all the end of God’s providence. We see that the Redeemer is just as alive as he has always been.  We find that we can wait patiently, trustingly, for the Lord’s salvation. It is certainly there.

If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.

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Psalm 138:1-8 - Lectionary for Pentecost 12A

8/21/2017

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8/21/17
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the three-year lectionary.

Psalm 138 draws a picture of the God who knows all sorts of people. He recognizes the haughty, the lowly, kings, and even me. What does he do? He gives protection, guidance, and all manner of care to those who call on him. This is God’s purpose.

What does it imply when God’s purpose is to rescue his people? The God of the Bible is not a self-centered God who is greedy for power at the expense of his people who must praise him in a certain way or else. He, in fact, is an other-centered God who is greedy for the good of his people and his world. Verse 8 points out that the world in general, and God’s faithful people in particular, are the work of God’s hands. Like a master craftsman who has created something beautiful and useful, God rejoices in the good of his creation.

In response to our identity as God’s workmanship, we can live in confidence. We are of great value. We and all humans are deserving of honor. We treat one another and our world with respect, knowing that there is one God over all. We realize that despite all hardship there’s a rhyme and a reason to everything. The God who made us and our world is certainly able to be the sustainer as well. Here is comfort. Here is peace.

If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.

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